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A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.

-- Mark Twain

Mark Twain

The principles that inform powerful leadership and innovation have not really changed much over the centuries. As far back as you care to go in history, writers have struggled with and written about the same challenges we face in the 21st century. Today's leader of innovation has a great deal in common with the innovation leaders of the past, and there is much to be learned about critical leadership traits by reading outside of "business literature."

As you think about your summer reading, what to take with you on your long-awaited vacation or just what to keep around for dipping into, you may be looking at current publications. As an alternative, here are four good reads from a variety of sources, each of which addresses a critical element of innovation leadership: courage, diversity, ecosystems, and principles.

Courage: You cannot lead an innovative culture without a measure of courage. Leading an organization that is constantly changing, evolving, and creating is not easy, nor is it without its moments of self-doubt and worry. The Chicano poet Luis Omar Salinas reflects on courage in his poem “My Father Is A Simple Man.”

In Salinas' world, courage is not a dramatic or necessarily visible characteristic. As he describes his father, courage is seen in the day-to-day, the little things, the ability to be in the moment with the task at hand and to complete that task with integrity and authenticity. For those who aspire to better leadership, this poem provides a wonderful prescription in the words Salinas uses to describe his father: “a worker and provider, | who learned the simple facts | in life and lived by them, | who held no pretense.” The true leader can learn much from these lines, and this poem: courage is without pretense, simple and powerfully connected to daily life.

As you read and learn more about yourself as a leader, these words may tell you everything you need to know about courage in your life and your work. There are not many better descriptions of how to “be” courageous in your organizational role.

Diversity: A hallmark of the truly innovative culture is diversity: of people, opinions, ideas, points of view, lifestyles . . . you name it. There may be nothing more important for innovation than for an organization to include competing notions in all conversations. Of course, diversity is not easy, and requires mindful leadership to avoid anarchy. Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Team of Rivals tells the story of Lincoln’s masterful inclusion of former rivals Bates, and Seward in his cabinet. Rather than exclude those who had opposed him and who held strongly contradictory points of view, Lincoln's genius (and strength of character) led him not only to include them in his leadership team, but also to listen to their perspectives.

The innovation leader can learn much from this tale. There is power in inclusion and danger in exclusion. The constant challenge of diverse points of view enables stronger conclusions and more thorough vetting of complex decisions. It is not just the absence of an easy “yes,”in conversation, so much as it is the presence of a strong “no” that makes diversity so important, and so powerful. Lincoln’s story shows us how important it is to be inclusive and how much incremental power accrues to the leader of a truly diverse organization.

The Ecosystem: We say this frequently: Innovation is a product of ecosystems. And it is the hallmark of innovation leaders to be able to step back and consider the entire organizational ecosystem in their thinking. Nearly 500 years ago, Sir Thomas More considered this question: “What would the ideal system for optimizing human happiness look like?” The innovation in his approach was to construct an entire, idealized world and set that world in motion in Utopia. Not many of the particulars in Utopia are original, and as “social engineering” it falls considerably short of the mark. But there is genius in More's approach.

Innovation leaders generally operate in a world of “what if” and must constantly project the consequences and outcomes of complex systems. And the systems, because they are made up of human beings, tend to be messy, unpredictable, and highly variable. Thomas More shows us the power of narrativizing ideas and principles and the power of “the story” to make real that which is not real. More important, though, Utopia is a wonderful example of what it means to think about the ecosystem as a whole when thinking about innovation.

John Milton,innovation leader.

Principles: Innovation leaders must be principled, if nothing else. They make decisions and invoke action from their own strong, core beliefs. And they must defend those beliefs with passion, courage and conviction. John Milton may be our single best example of standing by principle.

Out of a wealth of great poetry and prose, Milton’s “Areopagitica” stands out as one of the greatest historical examples of powerful personal conviction, and the courage to stand by that conviction. It is both a rousing defense of free speech (or, rather, “unlimited printing”) and a call for freedom of inquiry. One need only look at the United States Constitution to see how powerful beliefs like Milton's can persist across time!

Leaders of innovation constantly face times when their principles conflict with expediency, when the urgent is competing with the important. At those times, true leaders reach deep, connect to the core principles that inform their character and beliefs and then “tell the story” of their beliefs. This is how leaders create alignment and cohesion in complex systems: by telling their “belief story” in authentic and eloquent ways. "Areopagitica" is a beautiful example of strong beliefs strongly championed. Developing leaders will want to spend time with it.

So there you have it: courage, diversity, ecosystems, and principles addressed by two poets, one historian, and a philosopher/theologian from 500 years past, all facing the same struggles we face today in championing innovation. In the case of innovation leadership, we may learn more from the past than from the present.

Henry Doss is a venture capitalist, student, musician and volunteer in higher education. His firm, T2VC, builds startups and the ecosystems that grow them. His university, UNC Charlotte, is a leading research institution.